Disclosure context

About Blackbyte

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that emerged in October 2021, primarily motivated by financial gain through double extortion tactics targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group is suspected to operate from Russia or former Soviet states based on their use of Russian-language forums and avoidance of targeting organizations in Commonwealth of Independent States countries, though they maintain no confirmed links to other established ransomware families. BlackByte operators typically gain initial access through vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers, phishing campaigns, and exploitation of remote desktop protocol (RDP) services, employing tools such as Cobalt Strike for lateral movement and data exfiltration before deploying their custom ransomware payload that uses AES-256 encryption with RSA-2048 key protection. The group has demonstrated particular focus on critical infrastructure sectors, with the FBI and CISA issuing joint advisories in February 2022 highlighting attacks against organizations in government, healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors, including notable incidents affecting San Francisco's transportation authority and multiple healthcare systems across the United States. BlackByte remains active as of 2024, continuing to evolve their tactics and maintain their leak site for publishing stolen data from victims who refuse to pay ransoms. The group has been linked to 147 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on October 4, 2021; most recent post July 30, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 6, 2023Smead listed by Blackbyteon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Manufacturing sector, which has 2,458 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Smead is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

How we know this. Darkfield monitors public ransomware leak sites continuously, archiving every new disclosure and the data later released against the victim. Each entry on this page is sourced from the operator's own publication and cross-checked against complementary OSINT feeds (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch). We do not collect or host stolen data — only the metadata, timestamps and screenshots needed to make the public disclosure searchable and accountable. Records here are corrected when the original post is edited, retracted, or merged with another disclosure.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Smead Manufacturing Company

listed as Smead · Claimed by Blackbyte · listed 3 years ago

32m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Sep 6, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Blackbyte
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Sep 6, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Smead Manufacturing Company is a U.S.-based manufacturer of paper filing and organizational products, offering more than 5,000 SKUs including hanging folders, tabbed folders, labels, fasteners, and shelving systems sold in office supply stores nationwide. Founded in 1906 by Charles Smead, the company remains family-controlled under president and CEO Sharon Hoffman Avent. Products are sold direct-to-consumer via smead.com as well as through retail channels.

Industry: Office Filing & Document Organization Products Manufacturing
Founded: 1906

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been published by the threat actor (data_published status), confirming exfiltration of business data from a manufacturing company; while no specific regulated PII or financial data is explicitly enumerated, the confirmed publication of exfiltrated data from a company of this scale warrants a high severity rating.

BlackByte claims to have attacked Smead Manufacturing and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), indicating exfiltration of company data; no specific ransom amount or data volume was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Company internal files
Customer records
Business operations data

What the group claims

Smead Manufacturing keeps its customers' offices organized. Accordingly, the company makes more than 5,000 paper filing products that are sold in office supply stores nationwide. Smead's product assortment includes folders (hanging, tabbed, and expandable), labels, fasteners, and binder and report covers. The firm also supplies open and secure shelving systems.The company was founded in 1906 by Charles Smead. After the founder's death, Smead Manufacturing was purchased by employee P. A. Hoffman, whose granddaughter, Sharon Hoffman Avent, is president and CEO today.

Sources

Victim sitesmead.com

Source

Indexed 3 years ago

This page surfaces a public ransomware disclosure indexed by Darkfield. Original posts come from the operator's own leak site; we cross-check against ransomware.live, RansomLook and RansomWatch where applicable. Share this URL freely.